3D-printed, home-made, UV-LED photoreactor as a simple and economic tool to perform photochemical reactions in high school laboratories

Abstract

In the paper we present the simple manufacturing of an easy and economical UV-A photoreactor using a desktop 3D printer and its application in chemical transformations. PLA (polylactic acid) was used as inexpensive and not toxic polymer for the 3D printing process, while commercially available decorative ultraviolet LEDs (UV-A) have been employed as a light source. With this device, the photoreduction of benzophenone was performed in high yield and short times, compatible with the duration of a typical laboratory experiment in a high school program.

Exploring metallic and plastic 3D printed photochemical reactors for customizing chemical synthesis

“…Modern slicers allow the optimization of a wide range of parameters to obtain products of the highest quality using additive manufacturing. As a result, in recent years, low-cost and highly efficient photoreactors for a wide range of chemical processes have been actively developed using 3D printing 53 – 61 .…”

Accelerated Reaction Engineering of Photo(bio)catalytic Reactions through Parallelization with an Open‐Source Photoreactor

“…In recent years, a range of different photoreactors (commercial and custom) were developed by different companies [32] and groups (Table S5) [33–41] . However, less cost‐intensive solutions often lack an efficient temperature controlling system or allow illumination of only a single sample.…”

Assembly and Application of a Low Budget Photoreactor**

“…[5][6][7][8][9] In addition to that, 3D printing technology has allowed precise engineering and production of miniaturized systems. [10,11] In this publication, we report on the design and the assembly of a low budget UV-Vis photoreactor. Compared to systems reported in the past, the reactor in its entirety was assembled from scrap material found at the recycling station, acquiring only a commercially available LED and a fan speed regulator for the total price of 30 Euro.…”

“…Ranging from lamps for thin layer chromatography over commercial LEDs to decommissioned units from standard or reverse phase liquid chromatography instruments, a number of these systems have been reported in the literature [5–9] . In addition to that, 3D printing technology has allowed precise engineering and production of miniaturized systems [10,11] …”